Swap Two: Negativity
- Heida Reed
- Jun 8, 2018
- 3 min read
I can be negative.
Wow. That’s really hard to write. I kept erasing it trying to make it look prettier somehow but it’s true. I wouldn’t call myself a ‘negative person’. Cynical yes but negative in general? Not really. I ebb and flow, like most people I’d assume but I can be negative enough sometimes to feel I’d like to work on it. I had a different challenge planned for my second habit swap but then I decided to actually choose what spoke to me right now. What I feel I need the most. Positivity.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”
I’m not taking that literally by the way. I think that would be genuinely impossible, plus, if everyone followed that advice, Ricky Gervais wouldn’t exist. Or Amy Schumer. Or anything funny for that matter. People like that, be it performers, friends or family are my cynical touchstones. Never change. I will always need a sprinkle of cynicism and a dash of self-deprecation in my life. Having said that, I believe there’s some wisdom in that phrase and that it can be a good one to keep close to you. Especially when you’re just mindlessly bitching about how rude that check in girl was at the airport even though you just asked her a question about checking in and before you know it you’ve moved on to bitching about something completely different and irrelevant.
The entire time I was working on my first challenge I was having health problems. Nothing too serious but enough to hinder me in my daily life. When we don’t feel a 100% physically it is so easy to feel sorry for ourselves and fall into a downward spiral. That definitely happens to me. The longer I don’t feel well the easier it becomes to put a negative spin on things. Don’t get me wrong, I am a very grateful and fortunate person and absolutely adore my life, but sometimes I just forget. I feel like I’ve been hard on myself and my surroundings lately and my negativity towards one thing then starts to bleed into other aspects of my life. When everything is going great, it’s so easy to be positive, but when things are just a bit shit, that’s when we need positivity the most. There’s no point picking up that shit and throwing it around the room to make sure you’re covered in it. But we do that sometimes. What’s the point of it? Iwant to focus on catching myself when I go into a negative space or even when it’s projected around me. Our vibes are real people, and sometimes we’re not aware of how strong they can be. We can easily pick up someone else’s shit too and start throwing that around like our own and before you know it, you’re a mess again.
So, this is what I’m gonna start doing:
Meditation: Waking up and meditating instead of picking up my phone, scrolling through Instagram and feeling like I haven’t accomplished a good enough tan on holiday or spent enough time making some poor friend capture ‘golden hour’ pics of me laughing at a bench with an ice cream or a burger and yet somehow, I have eight pack abs and I look so effortless I don’t even know you’re taking the picture and it only took one snap and my life is better than yours #blessed. So yes. Meditating.
Thinking before I speak. Is what I’m about to say positive or negative? If it’s negative, is it necessary?
Diverting my negative thoughts. This is really hard. Even though you don’t say anything you can think it. So, I’ll be focusing on finding ways to let them go and not fester. Meditation will help with this.
I hope for those who are still following the habit swap that you will join me in this challenge as well because I’ve done it before in the past and every time I do, it reaps benefits. It’s easy to forget what your attitude is like and what you take and receive from the world everyday. That’s why it’s important to stop, check in with yourself, and reboot. This is my attempt.
I’m not gonna wait till tomorrow or Monday. I’m gonna start right now. Maybe I’ll just have a tiny bitch session about the state of the world first.
H
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